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Grand, Sarah

"Ideala"

I have no respect for
the ages that uphold such nonsense. There was never any need to bind us
with an oath. If men were all they ought to be, wouldn't we obey them
gladly? To be able to do so is all we ask."
"Well, it is a difficult question," he answered, "and I don't think we
need trouble ourselves about it any way. Do you like flowers?"
"Yes," she burst out in another tone; "and easy chairs, and pictures,
and china, and everything that is beautiful, and all sensual
pleasures."
She said it, but she knew in a moment that she had used the wrong word,
and was covered with confusion.
Lorrimer looked at her and laughed.
"And so do I," he said.
"Oh! if only I could unsay that!" thought Ideala; but the word had gone
forth, and was already garnered against her.
Then came an awful moment for her--the moment of going and paying. It
was hateful to let him pay for her lunch, but she could not help it.
She was seized with one of those fits of shyness which made it just a
degree less painful to allow it than to make the effort to prevent it.
They returned to Lorrimer's room and pored together over a catalogue,
looking up the books she wanted.


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